For a city accustomed to a school district plagued by scandal and a school board prone to histrionics and hissy fits, the five-year term under Superintendent Carlos Garcia by comparison has been one big San Francisco snooze fest.

The retiring Garcia, who officially ends his 37-year career in public education Tuesday, has arguably been one of the most boring school chiefs this city has ever seen.

No big scandals or major school board squabbles, and a balanced, if austere, budget.

Garcia considers "boring" perhaps the greatest professional compliment he has ever received.

"I came with the intent to be boring, to get the board to be boring," he said.

It wasn't like that when he arrived.

The two previous superintendents, Bill Rojas and Arlene Ackerman, both rode out of town under clouds of controversy. A top Rojas aide, for example, landed in prison for stealing facilities' funds and the oft-labeled autocratic Ackerman was criticized for $45,000 in district credit card spending and for her relationship with labor groups and oppositional board members.

The school board was known for arguments in and out of public meetings between the more liberal and slightly less liberal members.

But Garcia, 60, had previously run the 300,000-student Clark County, Nev., school district with an eclectic Las Vegas school board that included liberals, conservatives and even Mormon housewives.

By most accounts, he has brought stability, serenity and a laser-like focus on the district's most struggling schools and students.

He put the "basic civil and moral rights of every student at the center of every conversation," said Phil Halperin, co-founder of San Francisco School Alliance, a nonprofit that raises money to support the city's public schools. "If you begin every conversation through that lens it gets much more difficult to get into a pissing match."

Students' achievement gap

Garcia eased tensions among school board members - at least in public - and helped focus their efforts on the students, especially those who couldn't read at grade level, weren't showing up for school and who never made it to graduation day.

He often described the achievement gap as "modern-day apartheid" - a civil rights issue that meant talking about privilege and equity and race.

He worked with the school board to create a strategic plan that included "balanced scorecards" used at each school to measure improvement in everything from parent participation to teacher turnover.

They were wonky policies that helped test scores rise despite five years of budget cuts that lopped nearly 25 percent in state funding from the district's budget.

But even as the economy tanked, he worked with the school board and labor groups to pass a parcel tax to boost teacher salaries while also increasing support and accountability for underperforming teachers.

He was shocked at the chalk and blackboards that still existed in schools and dedicated funding to rewiring the district and increasing technology in classrooms.

Jill Wynns, who has seen three permanent and two interim superintendents during her 20 years on the school board, gave Garcia a B+ for his work, the highest grade she would give any of the San Francisco superintendents.

"I actually think the best thing Carlos brought us was very low-key, almost entirely without controversy administration," she said. "He was the right person at the right time."

Yet not all of his efforts were appreciated.

He took on the teachers union earlier this year when he persuaded the school board to skip over all teachers in 14 schools that had low test scores during the layoff process. The challenge to seniority riled the union, which ultimately won the battle after an administrative law judge said the skipping policy violated state law.

Dennis Kelly, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, called for Garcia's ouster during the battle.

But for the most part, Garcia had few vocal detractors during his time here.

He is leaving voluntarily at exactly 60.5 years of age Tuesday, the first day he is eligible to retire.

"We are living the dream of closing the achievement gap," he said. "We've done a lot in five years, but it's just a start."

He will be replaced by his hand-picked Deputy Superintendent, Richard Carranza, ensuring a level of consistency and stability in the transition from one school chief to the next, something the district hasn't seen for decades, Wynns said.

'Kids make great bosses'

Garcia said he likes to leave a job while he's still liked and noted that he has never been fired, although he has always considered the students to be his supervisors anyway.

"If I had to work for adults I would have quit a long time ago," he said. "Kids make great bosses."

He said he will miss the kids, but not the seemingly endless school board meetings.

As a superintendent for 16 years in California and Nevada school districts, he has spent the equivalent of three months of this life in school board meetings.